


A woman on a mission and a brooding man

by Velvetcthulhu



Category: Mumintroll | Moomins Series - Tove Jansson, 新ムーミン | Shin Moomin (Anime 1972)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Feral Snusmumriken | Snufkin, Fluff, Guitars, M/M, Metaphors, Nature, Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:08:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26515714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Velvetcthulhu/pseuds/Velvetcthulhu
Summary: Snorkmaiden has an important conversation with Snufkin.
Relationships: Mumintrollet | Moomintroll/Snusmumriken | Snufkin
Kudos: 39





	A woman on a mission and a brooding man

Snorkmaiden was a woman on a mission. After saying goodbye to Snork in the early afternoon, she went to Moomin's house, but not to greet him as usually. The house was a friendly, welcoming mess: Moominmamma drinking tea and eating biscuits by the table, where Pappa was telling about this or that adventure of his to his son, with flourish hand gestures and theatrical sound effects(when he wasn't pulling a dramatic pause). Little My was jumping up and down on the top of Sniff's head, throwing friendly insults at him like "dickwiddle". Mamma spot her first. "Snorkmaiden, my dear! Would you like a cup of tea?" she asked, already rising to serve her.  
"Thank you Mamma, but i can't stay! Well, i will come back after i do something, but first, i must finish what i'm on! It's really important!" she said, waving at Moomin when he did. Little My jumped off and ran to her, Sniff close behind, already yelling. "What's important, Snorkmaiden? Can we come?" Little My asked, stopping suddenly in front of her. My's boots kicked up dirt, but she didn't even stumble from the screeching halt. "So?" My asked, crossing her arms, tapping with her feet. Snorkmaiden regret telling about her mission a bit, and shook her head. "No! It's very personal!" Little My just lift and eyebrow. "You know you can't hide things from me, Snorkmaiden. I will find out this way or that." she promised, lips pressed tight together, but she let her be and ran back to the house. Sniff looked back at the retreating girl, then back at Snorkmaiden. "So, see you later, Snorkmaiden. I guess." he sniffed, and ran back as well. Snorkmaiden waved and trotted along, searching until she found a familiar figure sitting by the river. Snufkin was cooling his feet in the water, idly thrumming on his guitar. The song of the Lonely Mountain, it's bittersweet tones drifting away with the breeze. When he spot Snorkmaiden, he lift his hat in greeting, and the girl nodded back, taking a seat next to him. None of them spoke, but Snufkin started to play a different song, quicker and jolly. Snorkmaiden took a peak from the corner of her eyes. Snufkin grew up, like the rest of them. He was always tall, and lean, but the psychical work he did on a daily level paid off, and he was wiry, filling out his tattered clothes, muscles shifting in his back as he played. It was a bit confusing, to be honest, to find so many people beautiful at once, at least it confused Snorkmaiden. She shooed these thoughts away, and turned to him. "Snufkin, i wanted to talk to you about something." She got a harrump in return, but Snufkin put down his guitar and looked at her, waiting. "It's about Moomin." she said carefully, and Snufkin blinked, but nodded. "What's about him?" he asked, while putting down his guitar and casting his fishing rod out, leaning back and laying on the soft grass, pulling his hat over his face, then crossing his arms under his head. He even crossed his ankles to look as nonchalant as possible. "I don't think we could countinue like this. Me and him, i mean. Our relationship." she blurted out, and immediately blushed. She didn't mean to spit it out like that. She only wanted to nudge these two together a bit more beacuse their love for each other is obvious. She simply wanted to be able to be friends with them, without her awkward relationship with Moomin or the unspoken grudge Snufkin gruffly held against her when they were younger. Snufkin just looked up at her under his hat. "I see. You don't mind smoking, do you?" he hummed, and when Snorkmaiden shook her head, Snufkin started to rummage through his yellow jacket's pockets, pulled out his pipe, stuffed it quick as lightning, and blew smoke rings into the air. Suddenly, he looked like he did a lot: much older, much wiser than them. It was only a façade, but one they fell for many times when they were children. And that's why Snorkmaiden waited. Beacuse a part of her thought they could somehow...force it to work with Moomin, before she decided to be kind to both of them and give up. And another, more rational and wiser part of her that she liked having was telling her that this needed time when Moomin, and even Snufkin were just little boys, beacuse it might have been just puppy love, or Moomin's admiration of Snufkin, treating him like a romantic hero from a novel, putting him on a piedestal. But Moomin was older too and more rational, and now it was two young men in love, looking at each other across fields and breakfast tables when they thought no one can see them. It's Snorkmaiden and Moomin what had been puppy love and it would be foolish to try to keep this up. Snorkmaiden exhaled, proud of herself. She wanted to be a psychologist, damn it! She did a lot of growth too and were proud of it. Now she only had to put this into words. "When we were younger, we liked each other. Just like how children do." she started. Snufkint sat up, towering over her, and tilted his head, like a tall, lanky bird, listening eagerly. "As teenagers, we still wanted to love each other, but we had been falling out, and it's only our own expectations toward each other and ourselves, plus some heteronormativity from the outside world that kept us together. We were expected to be together, and didn't know better." she took a deep breath, stealing a glance at Snufkin. He was nodding, deep in thought, thick eyebrows furrowed. "I very much see that now, yeah. I always felt something was off, whenever we were together as a group or i was just talking to Moomin, but i couldn't put a finger on it. So, what DO you want to do now?" Snufkin's pale brown eyes were piercing. He had strong eyes, brown like the rich soil and wet stones up in the mountains. She found herself fidget in that gaze but she also felt much lighter, it made she pull her shoulders back. Even if she felt like the tables have turned and now she was the giving end of this session, she could finally breath. Now she can grab her own fate into her hands and do as she pleases. "You know, i was supposed to be the one questioning you, but i'm glad you did it. I have to tell Moomin, and then, i want to go and see the world. Like you do. Study. And when i start to be a bit homesick, i'm gonna return to the Valley and open an office as a licensed therapist." she finished, and Snufkin made another humming noise. "That's very nice, Snorkmaiden. I'm proud of you. You will achive great things." he puffed smoke out of his nostrils like a dragon. "And if you want to learn how to survive in the wild, i can teach you." Snorkmaiden grinned, from ear to ear. "Thank you Snufkin, but it's unnecessary. I will go to the nearest big city and go to school there. That's much more my world than the wild woods, or even this cozy, but sleepy valley." she hummed, looking around, taking all of the scenery in. "I'm gonna miss this, i'm sure, and i'm not even gone yet." Snufkin blew another cloud of sweet and acrid smoke into the air, and watched it go before he answered, voice raspy. "Nothing is unalterable, Snorkmaiden." he said simply. "But altough i feel honored by our conversation, there's something more you want to talk about. I see it." he stated it, didn't ask, but the young snork nodded. "Damn, Snufkin, you're cryptic as fuck today!" she hissed, and it made both of them bellow with laughter. Snufkin fell down into the grass, meanwhile Snorkmaiden was clutching her side, wheezing. When Snufkin gathered himself enough, he sat up and wound his red, tattered scarf around his head, to keep sweat out of his eyes. The Summer breeze picked at it's edges. Snufkin always seemed like he's carrying a whip of Autumn in his pockets, even during the biggest heat. When he straightened himself to his full height, staring down people(and Snufkin only did that with good reason:when the police inspector tried to bring him in for trashing some rich bastard's garden, or when he pulled a knife on someone once for insulting Moomin for being fat), the wind turned. When Snufkin walked in his heavy boots, the grass, no matter how fresh and dewy it was, crunched like the fallen leaves in the first frosty mornings. But he was never unkind, never cruel: Autumn is comforting and colourful, soothing heat, turning the gears of time. Bringing wisdom and an ease of both mind and soul. Snorkmaiden knew Autumn is coming when Snufkin was wandering, without any baggage, just through the Valley, hands in his pockets, a smirk around his mouth, whistling a smoky Autumn song, she knew it's coming when Little My sat on the top of Snufkin's pointy hat and they sang sea ballads together, two deep and raspy voices, about sailors wondering whenever they will see the land again. Snorkmaiden saw it in the way Snufkin dare to put his hand on the small of Moomin's back, wrapping his scarf around his neck even thought they both knew Moomin has thick fur, and couldn't get cold easily, but he liked to feel cared for in simple, romantic ways. When Snufkin joked about "running hot", his too-sharp canines flashing, and Moomin blushed. Not for the first time in her life, she wondered who Snufkin really is, and how deep they know him. She had an inkling that Moomin and his sisters know him more than the rest, and couldn't bring herself to care. Boxing the "Is Snufkin a small deity we just don't know it?" question away, she went straight to the point: "Yes. I wanted to say more. I'm pretty sure you and Moomin love each other in the romantic sense and that you two were trying the waters in the last what...ten years???" Snufkin opened his mouth to protest but Snorkmaiden raised a hand. "Don't deny it if it's true, Snufkin. You might be a man of few words, all mysterious and brooding, but you two are so obvious around each other!" she grinned, and whooped internally as Snufkin blushed. "And how big part it takes in your confession about falling out with him?" he croacked. It was an important question, and Snorkmaiden promised all three of them to be honest. "Not gonna lie, it does, but i'm not trying to play martyr there." Snufkin nodded solemnly, he believed her. That was good. "So...what do you want to do now?" Snufkin asked. Snorkmaiden was ready: it was something she thought a lot about in the last few days. "Tell him. Then, you two should most likely confess to each other. You both have thick skulls, but you're still less hopeless than him. That's not a lot, to be honest. You two are fucking oafs." her words made Snufkin laugh again. "I appericate that there's someone in the Valley who also likes to be foul-mouthed. Moomin scolds me about it often. Little My doesn't count beacuse she's above all law." Snorkmaiden quickly snatched Snufkin's hat and put it on her own head. "No offence, Snufkin, but you're like that, too. Also, Too-Ticky swears a lot as well." Snufkin let out more smoke from between his teeth. "But she has braincells. She does it smooth. I just slap 'fuck' on everything i say." Snorkmaiden just shook her head, still laughing, and held out a paw to Snufkin. "Allies? In the 'Let's get Snufkin and Moomintroll stop dancing around each other' project?" Snufkin's hand was large, warm and calloused, his laugh lines deepening. "Friends, Snorkmaiden. Friends."

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, i wrote this to gush about 70's Snufkin beacuse he's magnificent and deserves the world - Roland  
> Note: Snorkmaiden's observations on Snufkin is only platonic love and aesthetic attraction


End file.
